Home Sweet Retail Therapy

You knew it wouldn't take long.

Brady and I went to Cavendish today - a glorious American-style indoor commercial festival of chain stores. I got a flirty, drop-waist daytime dress from a Forever 21 kind of deal and a cute lariat necklace from Aldo (so not cool African, but whatever. I have to transition slowly).

The best, however, was my purchase outside of the mall on the street from a cute little old man with a tiny space packed with stuff:

It was R70 (approximately $8). 

I'm wearing it all the time.

School Things

My complete schedule, with The History of Modern South Africa, Individual and Society, Contemporary Art, and the Political Economy of International Relations. "Tuts," or tutorials, are discussion sections.

Fridays are greeeat.

BIRDS.

I AM ON THE VERGE OF MURDERING THE BIRDS OUTSIDE MY WINDOW BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. 

ARGHHH@#$%0934GSRGJ#$O%^

I feel like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls.

First day of school. Man, do you know it.

All day long I felt like I was wearing a sandwich board saying "Hi, I'm American!" on the front and "I have no idea where to go or who to talk to!" on the back. For a 22,000-student university, the campus is pretty small, and on the first day back to school, it feels even smaller. 

It was like high school from one of those movies: You walk up the main steps to find hundreds of students, packed together in selected groups on the front area hugging and talking about their vacations, all the while either ignoring you or assessing you. At lunch, my housemate Brian and I sat in a corner outside of the food court on the steps, because all the cool kids sniped the tables by group (lucky us, we got to sit next to the chain-smoker table). 

I only had two classes today, neither of which was less than 100 people, and I doubt tomorrow's will be either. My first class, History of Modern South Africa, was half Americans, and taught by an American professor (so much for escaping the country). It seems manageable enough, and relatively interesting. The Political Economy of International Relations doesn't seem as inviting, but it does seem really engaging. The professor kept making jokes at the Americans' expense (like that's never happened before). 

I walked back to the house today for the first time since I've been here, and it was pretty liberating. Since I've been in Cape Town, I haven't exited a private residence without escort, so I felt kind of naked. 

Mom: don't worry, it was one in the afternoon, and about a quarter mile through the middle of campus.

Alas, my riveting posts with lots of brilliant photography will have to subside for at least the next four days, as I am forced to participate in the "study" part of study abroad.

Epic fail.

Table Mountain

Kids, don't try this at home.

Today we left our house around noon, and, long story short: we traversed across two mountains, and scaled up the side to the top of the second. Such a bad idea. But so worth it.

Our route in red. About a third of it involved vertical climb switchbacks.

We started at the top of UCT's campus and climbed up Devil's Peak, around it's back, across to Table Mountain, and then climbed up to the top of Table. It took approximately 4 hours, plus a half hour descent to our waiting cab (we were certainly not traversing back across Devil's Peak).

Needless to say, I am beat.

The Rhodes Memorial near the top of UCT's campus

View from Devil's Peak

Hiking, hiking, hiking

View of Table from the back of Devil's Peak. The long skinny green part (partly in shadow) in the middle of the picture is the vertical climb to the top.

We made it!! View from the top... finally.

More views of Cape Town and the bay.

Family photo

360 view of the city

There are certain thing you must accept about Africa.

1. Registration is mildly archaic. Dark ages status. I woke up this morning to physically go to registration at 11am (what happened to bookbagging in my jammies?). 

First, you stand in a line to get your forms. 

You fill out those forms. 

You then "queue up" in another line to wait for someone to tell you that you're approved to take what's on the forms.

He signs your forms.

You walk across the building and wait in another line so that your forms can be inputted.

Your forms are inputted.

You walk downstairs and get in another line. At this point, you don't really ask what the line is for, you just wait.

You wait more.

You get your photo taken (ugh.) Yet another flawless administrative mugshot.

You get your student ID.

Then, you wait for your friends to be finished. Fail.

2. You get to go to clubs on the 33rd floor of skyscrapers and go VIP for $5. Last night was pretty much the greatest night ever. We went to Hemisphere, this swanky club on top of the ABSA (the big bank in SA) building downtown. There was a list, Veuve Clicquot VIP room, and 360 degree view of the city. I spent less than $20. I heart Africa.

Naturally, I forgot to take my camera and got no pictures. Don't worry - I'll snipe someone's pictures and put them up!

Miscellaneous

Several very unrelated topics:

1. I found this in a little coffee shop right by my house. It's a magnetic board little kids can play with, and this was already on the wall!! They're a little early though... have the age wrong...

Miss you, Bidge!

2. Here's a picture of my house for you, Ma:

3. Long story, but my roommate moved out, so I switched rooms into a smaller single, and the two girls in this room now live in my big, old room. But now I have a (makeshift) big bed! My new digs:

Perfectly organized, obviously.

4. The other girl in a single in my house, Liz, and I went to Long Street today, a big busy street known for its nightlife, restaurants, and shops. After about two hours there, I miraculously came home with nothing! But scouted out things that I'll undoubtedly acquire later... Although, I did find this hippopotamus coffee table that has to come to Belmont (sorry, Claire). He's smiling!

5. Last but certainly not least, we (my house) went to our housing coordinator's place for dinner. And by housing coordinator, I mean surrogate grandmother, and by dinner, I mean four course meal complete with African bean soup, chicken lasagna, sweet potato cakes, and hot mulled wine. Here's a picture of my house! Cape Town is for Lover's.

Clockwise from left: 

Brian, CJ, David, Liz, Me, Andrew, Charlie, Carter, Allison, Ian

Also things of note:

1. I saw a baboon on campus today. Because that's totally normal.

2. My quest for a leather jacket is failing so far.

3. Although I did find a sweet antique book on the history of women's underwear.

4. My space heater is my new best friend.

Today I learned not to buy crack in Cape Town. Bummer.

We just got talked at today in orientation about not getting stabbed or attacked. Boring.

In other news, this is my school, no big deal:

Baboons, Beaches, and Break Dancing

Orientation officially started today. At 7:30AM to be precise.

Sunrise. Fail.

We (approximately 300 international students) piled onto buses that took us around Cape Town, then south down the peninsula, ending at the Cape of Good Hope. During our drive through Cape Town, we saw five-start hotels, the tourist-y waterfront area, and a Ferrari dealership, among other rich-people attractions.

Cape Town in the morning

A traditional African neighborhood

 World Cup stadium being built!

Building where Nelson Mandela made his first speech after his release

Our first stop was between Bantry Bay and Camps Bay - two of the ritziest residential areas on the peninsula. 

Camps Bay

Camps Bay

From there, we returned to the buses and headed to a wild penguin reserve. They were so cute, I definitely contemplated stashing one in my purse (theyre only about a foot and a half high!).

Hubby and his wife

African Penguins!

Byeee

From here, we went to lunch at a South African township called Ocean View. In the 1960s, a mostly black town called Simon's Town was re-zoned as a "whites only" area under apartheid, and all the blacks there were forcibly relocated to a makeshift shanty town in what is now Ocean View. Today, there are over 35,000 residents of Ocean View, a town rampant with drug abuse, gangs, and violent crime. 

Ocean View

During our lunch break, we saw performances by a community after-school arts program. They were amazing! Here's part of their Single Ladies performance :)

From there, we drove all the way to the south-westernmost point of the African continent, the Cape of Good Hope. It's a national park, with no developments for 30 square miles. We hiked across the cape, and then down the cliffs to stand by the super awesome tourist sign at the bottom.

Cape of Good Hope

BABOON! Apparently they're extremely dangerous and try to steal food from peoples' hands. They have left tourists mangled when the person tried to fight back against them. Feeding baboons is illegal, and can land you in jail with a criminal record.

Cape of Good Hope

Long way down!

Lovers Swankfest

Make sure to read earlier posts below, I have a couple back-posts

My house is sweeeet! We live in a six-bedroom gated house, with beautiful landscaping, in a pretty good neighborhood. You can see Table Mountain from my bedroom window, which is pretty nuts. I have one roommate, a ginormous closet, in the biggest room in the house! Still no central heating though…

Today was relatively uneventful though, as we only moved our stuff in and ran a few errands.

My room!

My own bathroom, with my roommate, Angel

Two big closets!!

View from my bedroom window

Dining room

View from the dining room

Living room

Cape Town at a Glance

July 18^th, 12:46 AM

 So I’ve now officially been in Cape Town for over twenty-four hours. In those hours, I’ve made cool new buddies (I heart Emory), walked around Rondebosch (the area just near campus, today was 65 and gorgeous!), and gotten a cell phone (An antique circa 2003). What I’ve observed from my cursory glance:

My antique

My temporary home before I move in my house

The view from my window

1. Very, very pretty people. Sucks.

2.   2. Central heating is a lot more vital than you’d think. IT’S SO COLD.

3.   3. Ballin accents.

4.   4. Cabbies hail you, you don’t hail them.

5.   5. I need to buy a leather jacket now more than ever.

6.   6. I’m way less edgy and cool than I thought I was. Must step up game.

7.   7. Table Mountain is a hundred times cooler in person than in pictures.

 View from my dorm common area

      8. I don’t understand the obsession with cage diving with sharks. Not that appealing.

9.   9. Don’t ask about the toilet thing – I have no idea which way it flushes.

10. 10. I probably could have brought my watch here. Fail.

11. 11. I need to be blonder, skinnier, own more ballet flats and spandex, and not swing my hips while dancing – otherwise I scream American. Well... I scream American no matter how hard I'd try.

12. 12. Screaming American is not necessarily a bad thing. But not necessarily good, either.

13. 13. The world is so small. I ran into Rose Filler, a girl from Duke last night at dinner, completely by coincidence!

14. 14. The presence of good dessert is lacking so far. I must find where the goods are.

15. 15. DVDs: 5 rand (61 cents). Cocktail: 15 rand ($1.83). Sitting at an outdoor café with girls in fedoras and guys in scarves, looking up at Table Mountain: priceless.

I move into my swanky pad tomorrow, I’ll keep you in the loop!

Welcome to Africaaa

8:41 AM, July 17^th 

I made it! With all my stuff too:

I got in last night around nine, and promptly went out (slightly coerced, but I figured, why not), but that’s another story altogether. In honor of my very long, and relatively smooth journey, I’ll give you the highlights (and lowlights?):

The Good: 

1.     1. Making Friends. First it was in Dulles Airport before I even left. A slightly emotional Charlotte arrived at her terminal with an hour to kill before boarding, and didn’t really know what was going on (people were checking in at the desk for the flight – who does that?). So I turned to an aging man sitting next to me and asked what was going on. Naturally, he didn’t know either and left me with no information regarding the mysterious checking-in, but did proceed to tell me his life story (He grew up in Johannesburg and has lived there all his life. His daughter just got married in Atlanta – that’s why he was here – and he hates the groom. Bummer.) and all his advice for my trip (Don’t trust anyone. You can’t tell the bad guys from the good ones. Ever.) Needless to say, his tips didn’t exactly invigorate my already fragile state, but it was nice to know South Africans weren’t altogether terrifying.

2.   2.  Finding Friends. In need of a companion, I was excited to find out less than an hour later that David Shea, a guy from my elementary school class, was on my flight, and doing UCT for the semester too. Yay! A friendly face! Sort of? Granted, I haven’t seen him since fifth grade, and no, we never really talked or were friends during that time, but yay! Someone I know won’t kill me or rob me blind. Word.

3.   3. Dramamine. Who needs Ambien?

The Bad:

1.   1.  The 24-hour trip. Although it was a given that getting here would suck, the trip was looong. On the bright side, I’m not too jet lagged. Yet.

2.   2.  Being alone. I now see the perks in having a travel buddy: When I saw David (even though we haven’t seen each other in years, and those previous years weren’t exactly Harry and Sally), I was so relieved and thrilled to just have someone to chat to who wasn’t the safari-ready professor and the significantly overweight Luandan expat (my neighbors for 19 hours).

3.   3.  Luggage. I packed only two suitcases! Both were under 50lbs! Plus only two carry-ons. Which were duffles bags. Which weighed about 40lbs each… It adds up, let me tell you. Joburg airport is bigger than you think. So is Dulles. So is Cape Town. Being a girl sucks.

4.   4.  The Luandan woman sleep-whining during nighttime. So weird.

Crisis Averted

I'm going to Africa! Phew.

After a terrific drive through morning rush hour to drop off my godforsaken criminal background check - along with 234,994,532 other documents - at the South African Embassy, I finally received my visa in the mail yesterday.

"With the Compliments of the Embassy of South Africa," I'm going to Cape Town!!

12 more days till takeoff.